Complete Genome Sequence Resource for the Necrotrophic Plant-Pathogenic Bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum WPP14

Abstract

Pectobacterium spp. are a major cause of loss in vegetable and ornamental plant production. One of these species, Pectobacterium carotovorum, can cause soft rot disease on many plants, particularly potatoes. These diseases lead to significant economic loss and pose food security threats by reducing crop yields in the field, in transit, and during storage. The Gram-negative enterobacterium, P. carotovorum WPP14, is a particularly virulent strain for which there is no available closed genome, limiting the molecular research for this important pathogen. Here, we report a high-quality complete and annotated genome sequence of P. carotovorum WPP14. The 4,892,225 bp genome was assembled with Nanopore reads and polished with Illumina reads, yielding 394× and 164× coverage, respectively. This closed genome provides a resource for research on improved detection and biology of P. carotovorum, which could translate into improved disease management.

Insight into biodiversity of the recently rearranged genus Dickeya

“…Most show strong relatedness illustrated by ANI values greater than 99% and clonal origin of the strains isolated during the US potato outbreak (Ge et al, 2021). Analysis of additional genomes highlights the diversity in D. dianthicola, with two strains isolated from potato in the Netherlands in 1975 and from impatiens in the US in 2019 (Liu et al, 2021) (Table 4), sharing 97 to 98% ANI values with other D. dianthicola genomes (Pedron et al, 2022). A recent report of D. dianthicola presence in Asteraceae weeds (fleabane and butterbur) close to potato fields points to another possible route of transmission from weeds to potato through surface water flow (Aono et al, 2022).…”